


The Slippery Slope

by llinwood



Category: Glee
Genre: Drabble, Gen, MMORPGs, Not Beta Read, World of Warcraft - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27574421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llinwood/pseuds/llinwood
Summary: Originally titled "The Slippery Slope of the Character Customization Screen" before I decided it was too long.  See the notes for more information, but basically this is how Kurt starts playing World of Warcraft.  It's meant to be a backstory for a longer idea I had but never wrote.  It is unedited, written quickly, and the first thing I've ever written in the Glee fandom.
Relationships: Sam Evans & Kurt Hummel





	The Slippery Slope

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that’s been kicking around in my head for a couple months now. Originally it was an extended Kurt/Sebastian idea where they’re both in the same raid group in a guild, but Kurt is more in it for the transmog sets and his character and Sebastian’s character flirt. It eventually would go in the cliche direction of them meeting in real life but not realising who the other is only to realise it (or have it come out somehow) later on.
> 
> Then I thought that Kurt probably would have gotten into WoW sort of by accident and this was born. It’s not great (as nothing is when it’s not read over and was written at 5 in the morning), and it’s the first time I’ve written in the Glee fandom so I don’t have a good handle on writing these characters (and it shows, I think). 
> 
> It is also the first thing I’ve written in almost a year so I’m taking it as an overall win.
> 
> Feel free to use the idea above or to go in a different direction entirely, just please let me know so I can read it? I would love to read this concept done better than how I wrote it.

It had started innocently enough. Sam had been, in his own words, “going through withdrawal” and Kurt had finally offered up his own computer so that Sam would finally stop whining about it. He had sat on his bed doing math homework, fully intending to just let Sam play while he kept himself busy. 

It was harder to ignore the game than he thought it would be. Sam’s account had apparently only recently been reactivated, and he had decided to start a new character so he could “get used to the game again.” Kurt had wondered, briefly, how much a game could change in only a few months to a year but didn’t ask. He had homework to do after all, except that it seemed as though Sam’s new character was female and Kurt tried not to ask, tried to focus on the math problems he had to finish, but it didn’t work. He had to ask. 

Same was more than happy to explain though the subsequent explanation seemed odd to Kurt. Apparently it was common and acceptable for guys to play as girl characters, though that didn’t mesh well with the group of effeminophobic boys who went to his high school. He rolled his eyes at the hypocrisy of teenage boys and wrote down a few more steps to the math problem he was on.

It didn’t take too long before he noticed that Sam’s character, previously human with a blond ponytail, was now blue, taller, and had a tail? He lasted only a few seconds before he had to ask. Sam’s current “race” was apparently actually an alien, though apparently there were a variety of elves, humans (one was a werewolf race?), trolls, and more that could be played.

It should have been easy to go back to his math homework, fantasy having never been his thing, but Sam finally chose to play as an elf and clicked through to the next screen which captured Kurt’s attention yet again. It was just full of so many options, and Kurt thought he could understand the appeal of a game that allowed you to focus on the appearance of the character. Finn’s games, which mostly seemed to involve just shooting things, never seemed to focus on the character.

It didn’t take too much to get Sam to explain some of the options which, in addition to the physical appearance, also included being able to pick out jewelry. Sam commented that there were more options than when he had last played and that he would have to take his older characters to the barber to explore the new options. Kurt’s interest increased again, despite his better judgement; it seemed the game really did focus on the character.

Once Sam was finished creating his character he landed on what looked like a ship and Kurt focused once more on his math homework, or at least he tried to. In between problems he would look up to check Sam’s progress which led to questions about the startling sound coming from what looked vaguely like small fish people and why exactly he had just exploded a pig. Still, Kurt managed to finish his math homework, albeit much more slowly than he would have normally, just as Sam’s character landed in some kind of city and entered a hut with purple neon on the outside.

With a grin Sam said that if Kurt liked the character customization options he would really like this, and proceeded to show off the various clothing he could “transmog” his current gear to. Kurt thought it seemed rather like playing with paper dolls, but could admit that some of the options seemed kind of cool.

Finally though, Sam logged off and thanked him. As Kurt’s door closed he found himself sitting on his bed staring at the game launcher. He got up to shut his computer down completely and then paused. It couldn’t hurt to just explore through the character customization options. Sam’s explanations had been good Kurt knew there were more races and options than Sam had had time to explain. He would just go through and look at the options. He didn’t even have to actually start a character. After all, playing video games wasn’t his thing.

**Author's Note:**

> This is, actually, how I got into WoW. Not being enthralled with character options or transmog, since I started playing just before Burning Crusade came out, but the rest of it is fairly accurate. We were in college and my friend was complaining about her laptop being broken so she couldn’t play. I finally offered up my laptop, and she happened to have the install discs with her. I wasn’t doing math homework, but the homework I was doing wasn’t enough to stop me from being curious enough to watch her play. She left the game installed and it took me a couple of days before I finally gave in and created an account to try it out. 
> 
> Sam, somewhat obviously, is playing after WoW 9.0 so there are references to the new customization options and the new Island Starting Zone. I had him choose a blood elf, though I couldn’t quite decide on what class he would play so I just didn’t mention it.


End file.
